Saint Fulbert

All the guests had checked-out of the gites by 9:30 this morning. It makes things a little easier for us as we get a bit of extra time to clean, tidy and re-stock each gites with the bread/wine and croissants welcome pack.

The grass is growing like the clappers at the moment. Warm and wet seems to be a great recipe. The ride-on mower is going to earn it's keep this spring. It's already had a busy winter lugging all my logs about.

Moles. Moles and more moles. Brittany seems to be plagued with moles. They are burrowing everywhere at the moment, and always pop-up where you least expect and want them. Fortunately the croquet lawn has escaped unscathed, but time will tell. Any suggestions to solve my mole problem would be most welcome.

Saint Gautier

The kids had an Easter egg hunt today. A few days early but Hannah (in the middle) is going home back to England tomorrow. I drew a load of little pictures on pices of paper and scattered them around the grounds. E.g. A picture of a wheelbarrow, then in the wheelbarrow the kids would find a small Easter egg and the next 'clue'. They had great fun. In fact we have all had a fantastic week this week. The weathers been really good and we've had some good meals and trips out. Chilled and relaxed, just like being on holiday.

Saint Julie

Suzanne and Michael went to St Malo for an evening meal last night and ate in the Golden Lion (Lion D'Or). Food and atmos very nice, but the talking point was the ice-cream. Both were so full of flavour that they made your mouth burst. I guess that's as good a recommendation as any. St Malo is a lovely town, esp. the old walled part.

Busy day today with the children. We went to two beaches, Pen-Guen (say penguin) at St. Cast Le Guido and then after I dropped Caroline off in Dinan for her French lessons we went on to Dinard. Both completely different beaches. Pen-Guen is a large uncommercial beach. Unspoilt and quiet. Dinard is much more commercial, we sat on the promenade and drank coffee and eat ice-cream whilst the kids played on the beach just 20 yards away. Dinard was much busier, but at least you can get chips

The first week of Easter has seen our gites fully booked, but next week we only have one gite occupied. It's a shame cos the weather in Brittany has been really nice (a little cool and windy at times but pleasant enough).

All the farmers have been working overtime this week, mainly spreading muck and plouging in. I guess they are preparing for the planting season. They grow alot of maize round here.

Looking foward to a take-away from the Taj Mahal in Dinan tonight.

Feeling a bit shabby this morning. Three of us went to the Cambridge bar in Dinan last night and over indulged slightly. This was my first visit and I noticed that quite a few ex-pats regulars frequent the bar. Not really my scene.

Been painting new shutters for the windows today. It's has been trial and error searching for the correct finishing product to protect the wood. There is a huge choice of products, most of them anti-fungual, anti-termite (worm), anti-uv, anti-everything. Ended up using Bondex lassure medium oak. Lassure seems to be like a varnish but soaks into the wood and gives a matt finish.

Pruned the apple trees very heavily. I'm not sure what I'm doing here, but last year I could not get to most of the apples, so I decided to lop the tops off and try to make the tree bushier. The French seem to pollard all thier trees and use the wood for the fire. So when in Rome…

Turned over the compost bins and used the good stuff at the bottom for the vegtable patch. Caroline rotovated it in and planted some spuds. Just like Tom and Barbara in The Good Life.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/g/goodlifethe_7772855.shtml

Saint Marcellin

Perfect timing, sat here watching the heavens open. Michael, one of our guests, has just abandoned washing his car Fortunately I've just finished mowing the lawns. Looking good.

Amusing incident this morning. One of the little girls staying with us was helping feed the chickens and the goose this morning. Geese produce prodidious amounts of pooh, and consequently the young girls foot skidded on the said pooh. It wouldn't have been too bad except that when she fell she landed face first in the rest of the goose pooh. She was fine and after a quick trip to her gite to get changed she saw the funny side.

Yesterday, we all took a trip to St Malo on the coast. Nice lunch on the sea-front and the kids went for a play on the beach and rocks. Unfortunately Hannah slipped and landed face down in a rock pool. Luckly we had a spare set of clothes for her in the car. I guess we should have seen it as a premonition.

Beer tonight, I could not stand to watch The Two Towers tonight. I saw Lord of the Rings last night and did not enjoy it at all. I felt like the little boy in the Emperor's clothes story. Could see why it was so good.

Saint Isidore

Schumacher takes hat-trick. Michael Schumacher wins the Bahrain Grand Prix for his third consecutive victory. [BBC Sport | Motorsport | UK Edition]

Nice suprise as I expected their tyres to let them down. I guess the lower than expected heat played a part.

Children and Caroline went to a free concert in Dinan this afternoon. The band played short excerts from well known musicals, films and shows. E.g. Phantom, Les Mis, Pink Panther etc. Excellent event judging by the response I got. It seems very common for free events to be put on by the various communes in France. Last year we went to several excellent events and some great Fetes.

Watched the Italian Job (not the Caine version) on DVD after an heavy Sunday lunch with friends. Generally an OK movie but a bit let down by the 'dramatic' music. I think the original had a better storyline.

St Richard

Goat escaped three times. The most crucial time during Michael Schumachers pole lap. I missed the last few seconds cos the tape on the VCR ran out whilst I was outside sorting the problem out. The problem is she will eat ALL the new plants and trees we planted in the last few weeks. Urggggg! Mucho barbed wire and fence fixing I hope she stays put.

Curry and beer tonight.

Schumacher on top again. Michael Schumacher leads a Ferrari one-two in qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix. [BBC Sport | Motorsport | UK Edition]

Looking forward to a Ferrari win, but I suspect the Williams duo might come good in the heat of Saudi.

Saint Sandrine.

Our guests arrive tomorrow, so we will be full. We are both looking forward to having people around after the long winter break. The weather is fantastic (sunny 21), the gardens looking good, and the kids have got two weeks holiday. Our friends from Hook, England (the village we used to live in) our coming out, so I'm looking forward to a boozy week.

Frantically finished all the jobs in the gites ready for tomorrow,

major spring clean of the gites
re-arranged furniture and new dining table in Cerise
re-hung pictures
new gravel on drive
mowed lawns
mostly sorted the children's play area

and tonight we are going out for a meal to the St Louis in Dinan. Report tomorrow.

Poisson D'Avril today. All the kids at school run around sticking paper fishes on each others back. The French April Fool.

Spent most of yesterday dismantling the hot water boiler and the labyrinth of pipes. Since Xmas we have noticed the flow rate of the hot supply reducing very slowly. This week it started to get bad enough to starve water from the tap if a person in another gite was using the tap. Fortunately we only have some friends staying and he is a plumber. What luck. Anyway boiler in bits yesterday, and we found a major scale build-up. Cleared the scale but the problem persisted. This morning repeated the exercise and found that the 60cm internal supply tube in the boiler was solid with calcium. Amazing it worked at all. Lots of prodding with sticks, wire etc. and bingo. Seems that the magnesium anode (which prevents scale build up) has not been replaced in 6 years (since new). New anode on order and I just had the BEST shower ever after. The jet was so strong it was almost painful.

Canceled the boiler service man who was due to turn up tomorrow.

Good French lesson in Dinan this afternoon. I was the only person to turn up so I had excellent 1-2-1 tuition.

French Fact #2: You get huge personal tax reliefs for having three or more children. Builds the population to pay for all the pensioners.